Newly diagnosed child brings polio cases to 40

700% increase in number of cases from last year: NIH.

PESHAWAR:

As another child was diagnosed with poliovirus type 1 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases to 40 this year, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad.

K-P Health Department also confirmed the new case, adding that so far six cases have been reported from the province.

A health department official said the latest polio victim, Sumaira, daughter of Zahidullah, is 10 months old and hails from Mumbati Barakzai village, Bannu tehsil. The child had not received a single dose of the oral polio vaccine.

Moreover, he revealed that the number of polio cases were six in April last year in contrast to 40 this year. This reflects a 700 per cent increase in the number, he added.

Pakistan is only 18 cases away from crossing the total number of reported cases of 2012 (in which 58 cases were reported in all) and 53 cases away from last year’s toll of 93.

During this year, 33 cases have been reported from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) so far, of which 30 are from North Waziristan Agency, one from South Waziristan, one from Khyber and one from Frontier Region (FR) Bannu.

Measures to eradicate polio

K-P Health Minister Shahram Khan Tarkai chaired a meeting on Thursday in which the upcoming round of Sehat Ka Insaf was discussed. The round will be conducted in the districts of Peshawar, Mardan, Swabi and Charsadda.

The health department concluded in the meeting that around 1.7 million children in the mentioned districts would be vaccinated by 20,000 teams of health workers.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2014.